ALEX Lesson Plans

Subject: English Language Arts (4 - 6), or English Language Arts (4 - 6), or Social Studies (4)
Title: Living in the Wild
Description: In this lesson, students will compare and contrast how the Prehistoric Americans lived off the land at Russell Cave and how Sam Gribley from "My Side of the Mountain" lived off the land. This lesson plan is made possible through the ALEX and the U.S. National Park Service Partnership.

Thinkfinity Lesson Plans

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges: Critical Discussion of Social Issues Add Bookmark
Description: Through a series of picture book read-alouds, students engage in critical discussion of complex issues of race, class, and gender.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Childhood Remembrances: Life and Art Intersect in Nikki Giovanni's Nikki-Rosa Add Bookmark
Description: Students explore what Carol Jago calls the place where life and art intersect by reading Nikki Giovanni's poem, Nikki-Rosa, and then writing about childhood memories of their own.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Guided Comprehension: Knowing How Words Work Using Semantic Feature Analysis Add Bookmark
Description: Based on the Guided Comprehension Model developed by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen, this lesson introduces students to the comprehension strategy of knowing how words work.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof premiered in New York in 1955. Add Bookmark
Description: Students are introduced to the characteristics of drama, read a chapter from a novel the class has read, and create a script from the chapter that they will present to the class.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject: Social Studies,Language Arts,Arts
Title: The World of Haiku Add Bookmark
Description: In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students explore the traditions and conventions of haiku, comparing this classic form of Japanese poetry to a related genre of Japanese visual art and composing haiku of their own.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Subject: Language Arts
Title: April is National Poetry Month! Add Bookmark
Description: Students are assigned to be '' poets of the day'' and are provided several models to create, illustrate, and present their different poems to the class.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: K,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Promoting Diversity in the Classroom and School Library through Social Action Add Bookmark
Description: Students explore the effects of stereotypes by analyzing children's books. Then they create bookmarks that encourage readers to question the assumptions of stereotyped books and to seek out matching, balanced texts.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Subject: Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: The Statue of Liberty: Bringing the ''New Colossus'' to America Add Bookmark
Description: In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students learn about the effort to convince a skeptical American public to contribute to the effort to erect a pedestal and to bring the Statue of Liberty to New York. The activities in this lesson guide students through an investigation of primary historical documents and an analysis of the poem The New Colossus, written by the nineteenth-century poet Emma Lazarus.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Subject: Arts,Language Arts,Mathematics,Science,Social Studies,Geography
Title: The Internet Public Library Add Bookmark
Description: The Internet Public Library, and EDSITEment-reviewed Blue Ribbon resource, offers a collection of online resources in a variety of subject areas. IPL provides dictionaries, atlases, other basic reference resources, online exhibits, texts of classic literature, links to newspapers and serials, and other resources for both adults and children. IPL also offers two ask-a-librarian services, where users can submit questions via e-mail on virtually any topic.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: K,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts, Social Studies
Title: What Makes a Poem an Epic? Add Bookmark
Description: This student interactive, from an EDSITEment lesson, prompts students to identify examples of the epic hero cycle from a story with which they are familiar.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Subject: Language Arts
Title: The Pied Piper led the children out of Hamelin in 1376. Add Bookmark
Description: After listening to The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents , students compare Pratchett's version with Browning's version and discuss how perspective changes the story.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Book Report Alternative: Comic Strips and Cartoon Squares Add Bookmark
Description: Students must think critically to create comic strips highlighting six important scenes from a book they have read.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Subject: Language Arts,Mathematics
Title: Mathematics and Children's Literature Add Bookmark
Description: In this five-lesson unit, from Illuminations, students participate in activities in which they focus on connections between mathematics and children s literature. Five pieces of literature are applied to teaching a wide range of topics in the mathematics curriculum, from sorting and classifying to the meaning of averages.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: K,PreK,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Patriot Day is celebrated today on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 2001. Add Bookmark
Description: Students write about the name '' Patriot Day'' and how it marks the anniversary of a huge disaster. An alternative assignment could be to ask students to record their reflections about 9/11.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Poet William Blake was born in 1757. Add Bookmark
Description: As a class, students brainstorm abstract concepts and personify that concept through a drawing or story told about the character who personifies that concept.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Analyzing Advice as an Introduction to Shakespeare Add Bookmark
Description: Popular culture provides an introduction to Shakespeare's poetic devices in this lesson, which asks students to explore an excerpt from Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8